rchbishop Michael A. Courtney, 58, the Vatican Ambassador to Burundi, died Dec. 29 after being struck by numerous bullets shot at the car he was riding in while returning to Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital. He was due to leave Burundi soon, as the Pope had named him apostolic nuncio in Cuba.
The Archbishop had worked hard at developing relationships and credibility with the government and the rebels in Burundi. The main basis for his approach was a belief that he had a good rapport with both sides. He had cancelled his usual post-Christmas break because he was optimistic about the peace process and wanted to help. His personality clear and transparent, he could not remain indifferent and silent before the injustice imposed on innocent people.
In our house in Bujumbura, Archbishop Courtney felt at home. For us Xaverians, he was a friend whom we willingly invited to our assemblies to share with him the adventures and visions of our missionary life and to ask for his views and his counsels about the situations in which we found ourselves…
The problem of Burundi and the search for peace were a challenge for him into which he threw himself headlong, without prejudices, telling all what he was thinking and, with respect, recalling all to their responsibilities. For him there was only a people that was suffering too much and a peace to seek at all costs.
Sadly, it is still hard to understand why they wanted to kill him, but those who sought his life were well prepared. Now he is one more martyr in a country, violated by a decade-old civil war in which rebels of the majority Hutu group are fighting to end dominance of the Tutsi minority.
The was has already taken the lives of 300,00 people, including bishops, priests, missionaries and so many simple people. Archbishop Courtney, a man of God, could not remain aloof before a conflict in which people suffer and someone makes them suffer so. The Vatican expressed “deep sorrow” at his violent death, describing him as “a faithful and generous servant of the Church.”
He is now remembered as a man committed to peace and justice, and who has proclaimed, strongly, what no one had the courage to say out of fear, convention or false respect.
Fr. Luigi Arnoldi, Regional Superior of the Xaverians in Burundi, writes: ”In our house in Bujumbura, Archbishop Courtney, apostolic nuncio, felt at home. He would bring us the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, and willingly stayed for coffee. For us Xaverians, he was a friend whom we willingly invited to our assemblies to share with him the adventures and visions of our missionary life and to ask for his views and his counsels about the situations in which we found ourselves…
Certainly, no diplomat in Burundi has taken on as he did, with passion, the vicissitudes of this land… Michael was a shepherd, a shepherd who did not hesitate to get his hands dirty where the interest of the people were concerned, and that commitment involved some risks, at least here in Burundi.
But here also things have changed and are changing, because there is no solutions other than dialogue and justice to arrive at a true and lasting people in the reconciliation and the mutual forgiveness. Too many have died a violent death since Burundi gained its independence in 1962.
We thank the Lord for having given us Michael as apostolic nuncio in Burundi. We are sorry at the way he has left us, but his memory and his work remain.”
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)